Infant school and 'stretching'

[earlylifecrisis]

I know I'm going to get all sorts of 'Pfb' comments thrown at me, and suggestions that I think my Dd is mini Einstein but here I go anyway as I'm made of tough stuff!

Dd is 5 and In reception. We lived in Singapore for several years before returning for her to go to school and she did kindergarten there. As some will know they take it all pretty seriously there and taught DD to read and do addition/subtraction and as a result she's quite far ahead, reading well and confident with her number work. Her teacher said in parents eve that she is 'ahead and will be all year' because of the fact she's done all this stuff already and got to grips with it well.

The term has rolled on and DD has started to say she is bored, as in phonics they are doing all she has done already, ditto with maths. She said it's easy but she likes her friends. We asked if DD could have some slightly more stretching activities at the last parents eve but it doesn't seem to have materialised. As such she said she doesn't want to go into school as it's not interesting like her old school.

I know the teachers are under pressure for students to reach the 17 early years targets so I guess the leg work has to go into those who need more support in reaching those, but would it be reasonable to see the teacher and ask if they could help to provide a few more things for her?

I don't think she's a genius, but she is a bright girl who knows quite a bit already and it seems a bit of a wasted opportunity for her to make some progress.

Yes wonderstar, her teacher is the maths lead, he got her place on a Saturday maths course at a prep school which has sadly ended. He said it was all about mastery now, but DD says she knows all her maths and English inside out and is bored. She's hungry to learn. She has a different teacher for topic, and although the whole class agree that the topic teacher has no control over the class (which I've witnessed when I helped out on a school trip), it's the only subject she's learning anything in. I'm hoping that secondary school will be better.

I've read your posts with interest wonderstar, and I'll have a talk with DD tonight to discuss where we go from here. Or possibly tomorrow, as it's the first day back!

DS1 span his wheels through most of reception and we are starting to see the same with DS2. I asked this morning and if they all the do letters and sounds at the same pace and was assured they do ;-) so no hope there! Things do improve in Year 1 but we have had to wait til Yr3 to get a teacher who was willing to stretch DS1... Now he is thriving.

Sounds like a not great school or teacher to be honest. Differentiation is in every task at DD school - although they would stay in year group and have no 'tables' / sets etc. Reception was a blast - hardly any obvious formal learning but boy did they learn and they had so much fun. Y1 is a little bit more obviously academic but still loads of time outside / foreign language / pe / forest school / art (actual pencil drawing). It's not a perfect school by a long way but chance to be bored seems really low.

OP - I think the question you need to ask is: "What progress is my DD making?" All Heads look forensically at progress data (and so do Ofsted). Yours will too. Ask the Head to go through her progress with you. What are they going to do if she is "exceeding" in everything? It is perfectly possible for teachers to challenge children with more demanding taks. Ask that this is done to ensure development and progress. It does not have to be done out of year. However, an NQT is probably bad news. See what the school says about Y1.

Schools do now assume every child needs the same diet in YR. My elder DD would have been bored with this too. Fortunately experienced teachers know when brighter children appear and teach accordingly. All research shows there are huge divisions between children at age 3 and some never catch up. That's why we have Oxford and Cambridge Universities and FE for the less bright. Children are not the same: some do not catch up and every child is different! If you wait for all to catch up, you will be waiting a long time.

Thank you bubbles that is a really helpful post. I have a meeting at the school on Thursday and I certainly will approach it from a progress point of view, because she isn't making any at the moment! Although I do acknolwedge that she has made friends and her teacher goes to great efforts for bringing creativity into the classroom. I think she lacks experience with differentiating work and may need some more support from the school.

As an NQT she will be monitored and given lots of advice. She will also not have a full timetable. Of course it is right that new teachers are allowed to grow on the job, but they possibly do not know how to deal with all children in their first year. They just do not have the experience so I think you are a bit unlucky. I would try not to complain about the teacher, however, but keep your eyes on the need for your DD to make progress. Any good school will be wanting her to make progress too.

Blimey perfectly been back since last tues here! I can provide you with y5 end of year expectations for eng and maths so you
Could go through them with her? Also what bubbles said, it's about showing progress and although they don't have levels anymore there will be some way in which they are recording her academic ability. Are they set for eng and maths?

Early, if she is an nqt she will get lots of support as a previous poster has stated. You've got to be honest with us. If you aren't happy, bring it up. As a teacher I've had to have lots of difficult conversations and they need to be done. And vice versa with me I'm sure!
Have you got a copy of end of year expectations? For example I sent mine out at parents eve in Nov and asked for support for some things from parents, eg telling the time and fractions.
In reception a baseline assessment would have been completed in the autumn term. Could you have access to it possibly? We only show ours if requested I believe. How was she assessed for writing? There are many questions you could ask.
What do you think her next steps are? Maybe ask that to the teacher and to see what she says?

Thanks for all your great advice everyone. I saw the teacher this morning in the end, and we had a good chat about DD. She did some assessments on DD at the beginning of the week (at my request) and assessed her reading level at Orange (whatever that means- yet to google that one!) apparently this puts her even further ahead of her class the the teacher thought so she is going to be going for her guided reading sessions with year 1. Apparently for maths there is a small group of them who are quite good and at the same level so they will be starting small group taking out in a couple of weeks. She told me that DD seems happy but sticks to one other child so we thought of ways we could widen her social circle a bit and make her more confident at playing with other children.
She will continue to learn phonics at the same speed as the rest of the class but for her it will just be revision.

I am satisfied that the teacher is now going to some effort to meet her level and help her make progress so will monitor and discuss again at the next parents evening.

ThNks again for this super helpful discussion.

Well done. Sounds constructive.

I know this is not considered so much now, but years ago my DDs were in a huge “hen and chickens” classroom with 66 in YR and two teachers with 2 TAs. The more “forward” children were able to use the small “chicken “ classrooms where they did more advanced reading, writing and maths. It is quite similar to what your teacher is suggesting where some children need a different approach - so sometimes the old ways are worth a look!

Excellent outcome!